Chapter 8
Eight
Despite their unexpected earlier encounter by the display case, and the comradeship of the ranch work, Josie found that after
the Brannts left, she could ignore John by simply sitting between Stasia and Heather and Odalie and talking fashion. She didn’t
know that much about it, but she was certainly interested.
“I wish I knew as much about clothes as you three do,” she said with a smile. “I’m afraid I just mostly kick around in jeans
and I wouldn’t know fashion if it bit me in the nether regions.”
They all laughed.
“I had to know, for my job,” Stasia said softly. “I worked in an uptown art gallery, and I did restoration work along with
producing portraits on the side. I needed to appear trendy, and I had an unlimited budget for clothes. I learned. It just
takes time.”
“And I just always loved clothes. So did Maddie Brannt’s mother, Shelby. She was a very famous model, and her mother was Maria
Cane, the movie star,” Odalie added.
“Wow,” Josie said softly.
“She and Mom are friends,” Odalie added with a smile at her mother. “Mom was famous, too, as a singer, before she married Dad.”
“It’s like Stasia said,” Heather laughed. “You just learn about fashion with time,” she added, rising. “I have to get the
cookies out of the oven. I made some for JJ.”
“I’m afraid time is what I have the least of,” Josie said without thinking.
John glanced at her from nearby with an expression she couldn’t begin to read. Josie avoided his eyes and asked Odalie about
opera.
Several minutes later, JJ wandered into the room wolfing down a last homemade chocolate chip cookie. “You guys should go try
Mrs. Heather’s cookies, while there are still some left,” he told them with a smile. “They’re sure great!”
“I will,” Josie assured him, smiling. “She’s a wonderful cook, isn’t she?”
JJ nodded. Impulsively, he put his arms around Josie and hugged her. She hugged him back.
“Thank you again for all you did,” JJ said. “I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you.”
In many ways, that was true. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she asked softly, her cheek on his tousled hair. “We can do such a
simple thing as talking to strangers, and incredible things happen.”
“Sure. Like talking to a wanted felon. . .” John muttered.
“Stop that,” Heather said before Josie could get a word out. She came in and handed JJ another cookie. “You keep eating, my
boy,” she said, and grinned as she hugged hm close. “You need to gain a little weight.”
He was hugging her back and laughing. “If I could cook like you do, I’d weigh five hundred pounds,” he sighed.
Heather just wrinkled her nose. “There are dozens of dishes that need washing,” she began.
“I have morning sickness,” Stasis said at once.
“My opera coach said that getting near dishwater was bad for my throat,” Odalie added, with a straight face while Stasia almost
choked on mirth.
“I had a bull get loose,” Cole said from the doorway. “Going to chase him right now.” He turned and left.
“You’ll need help, Dad! I’ll come, too!” John said, with exaggerated enthusiasm and a pointed glare at Josie, and followed
his dad out the door.
“Do they always do that?” JJ asked, looking up at Heather.
She grinned. “Every holiday. So I could use a willing volunteer . . .”
“I’m game,” Josie said, getting up.
“You’ll mess up your dress,” Heather said.
“Don’t you have aprons?” Josie asked, and grinned.
“She sure does. And I’ll help you, Josie!” JJ said.
She hugged him. “That’s a deal!”
So Josie and JJ got most of the dishes in the dishwasher, and hand washed the crystal and china, which was more fragile.
They were just finishing when John came back without Cole.
“Where’s Cole?” JJ asked. “He was going to play checkers with me.”
“He’ll be along,” John said, but he looked wary and he said nothing else about it.
At least, not until after Heather had said her farewells, and Josie was in the truck with him, headed back to her motel.
But about a mile from the ranch house, he turned into a wagon track that led just off the dirt road and stopped the truck.
She ground her teeth together, anticipating another interrogation. He was always suspicious of her.
“After we rounded up the bull, we noticed tire tracks near a deserted line cabin and at the loading station near it where
we store stuff in the spring,” he said. His pale eyes were flashing.
She met his gaze evenly. “And this involves me how . . . ?” she asked slowly.
“Dad had a phone call from some man who claimed he was involved in real estate,” he said, his pale eyes narrow on hers. “He
made an offer for the Big Spur.”
She drew in a slow breath. She had a sneaking hunch who was behind it and she didn’t dare say a word. “Was it a good one?”
she asked.
“Twice the assessed market value,” he replied. “And the man was insistent.”
“What did your dad say?”
“I won’t repeat it,” he mused, and his expression lightened, just for a few seconds. “My dad can be eloquent when he uses
the right words.”
A smile escaped her. She could imagine what the words were.
“Are you involved in something illegal?” he shot at her.
She gaped at him, stunned by the suddenness of the question. “Wh-why would you think so?” she stammered.
“You’re kidding, right?” he drawled, eyes narrowing. “I have contacts in Percell. The man you’re hanging out with, Raines,
has ties to a notorious drug dealer who has connections in Dallas.”
“Raines . . .” She hesitated and swallowed, and thought, hard. “Raines is involved in a real estate deal with me,” she replied.
“We’re working on a huge property purchase for a wealthy man in New York who doesn’t want publicity.”
“Is that so?” John asked, visibly unbelieving.
“Yes,” she said, trying to sound firm.
“You’re a real estate agent but you don’t have a car.”
“I had one. I totaled it,” she said stubbornly. “Raines drives me where I need to go.”
“Our sheriff is suspicious of you,” he shot back.
Thank you, Sheriff Marlowe, for having my back, she thought with fervent gratitude. He was making sure John didn’t blow her cover or discover her real identity. Undercover agents had been killed for one slip of the tongue.
“How kind of him,” she said with a vacant smile. “I’m suspicious of him, too.”
“Why?”
“For one thing, he carries a gun,” she said with a straight face.
“He’s in law enforcement. Of course he goes armed!”
She just stared at him. The news that Raines was trying to buy the Big Spur was concerning. She didn’t dare tell John that
Raines had given her a job trying to find out about certain areas on the ranch that weren’t used during winter. He was already
suspicious of her.
“And so are you. Armed, that is,” John added coldly. “I love my family,” he said very quietly. “I’ll do whatever I have to
in order to protect them.”
“Of course you will,” she replied, her mind busy on Raines and Velasquez and Vega and this new attempt to buy the Big Spur
ranch. Which drug lord would be this insistent?
“The man making Dad the offer for the ranch made certain veiled threats,” he added abruptly.
“What kind of threats?” she asked at once.
“That accidents could happen. Unfortunate accidents.” He glared at her. “Just mention to your associate that we know how to
handle people who cause unfortunate accidents. And we have people in our circle of acquaintances who know how to create really
nasty ones.”
She knew he meant Tony Garza.
“Your dad should have mentioned that,” she said.
“He doesn’t have to,” he replied. “At the first hint of trouble, we’ll have half a dozen government agents and some guys from
New Jersey down here.” He smiled. “They won’t be on vacation, either.”
She cleared her throat. “I could, uh, mention that.”
“Why don’t you do that?”
She just nodded, distracted. Things were heating up faster than she’d anticipated, and at the worst possible time. Velasquez
was just buying a huge amount of fentanyl and bringing it into the country. It was up to her to find out where it was and
when it was being brought in, and how. And now this complication. She hadn’t dreamed that Velasquez would try to threaten
the Everetts to get their ranch. She’d thought, honestly, that he was just looking for places to stash drugs on an out-of-the-way
place.
He glanced at her worried expression and smiled inwardly. Was she afraid? Good. Maybe she could convince her associates that
trying to force their way onto the Big Spur would be a very bad idea.
She had to be in on it. It disturbed him. Against his own instincts, he found things about her that he liked. The thought
of seeing her behind bars was distasteful. She’d been so kind to JJ in his time of grief. He could still see her in the emergency
room, on her knees, embracing the child with tears in her eyes while she tried to console him.
He forced that picture out of his mind. She was on the wrong side of the law by choice, wasn’t she? It wasn’t his place to
try to reform her.
“Can we go?” she asked after a minute.
“Sure.”
He turned the truck around and deposited her back at her motel room. He didn’t even say goodbye.
The next day, she heard from Raines on her cell. “We’re moving the stuff out tomorrow,” he told her.
“I thought you said it would be weeks,” she stammered.
“Timetable got moved up. And we’re only moving one small shipment first, just to make sure we haven’t been rumbled. You’re coming with me.”
“Okay,” she said. Well, what else could she have said? “Do we fly down to the border to get it?”
“No. It’s in a transfer truck parked at the bar. Looks just like a refrigerated truck meant for a big-name grocery supplier.”
She could almost see the grin. “I’ll pick you up in five minutes.”
“I’ll be ready.”
She tried to call her boss. She even tried to get in touch with the sheriff on his burner phone. Nobody was answering. She
cursed under her breath.
Raines pulled up in his car. She jumped in and he drove them quickly to the Percell bar to get the truck.